Open House at Sister's

It was a Raya, birthday, housewarming, doa selamat and Merdeka rolled into one. A do at Julia's new place in Kajang, first time she organised it there. And it was a big one.

It started off in late morning with doa selamat. Anita and the boys got there early as I had to do my morning rounds still. The highlight food-wise was roast lamb and satay. They were fresh, but unfortunately I was not a lamb person. The lamb was a big hit.

After my first round of food, it started to rain. Congregating indoors, I fell asleep in front if the TV. I wad then woken up by calls from the hospital, and in the end had to leave for Subang in the middle of the rain.

Anita stayed for a few more hours, but the traffic was too heavy for me to turn back.

Before leaving, we had the sing-along and cake-cutting for Nana, my niece's birthday. Anita, who bought the cake forgotten to bring along some candles. That cut down the risk of saliva contamination on the Red Velvet ...... And that could only be a good thing.

All in all, it was a great day. I wished that I could've stayed intil the evening, but I had to go to the hospital, and then another do in Melawati. That was what the schedule was like this weekends following Raya. Slideshow from the event here.

Flag at the Fountain

Went to Pavilion for a short hop to settle some bills and decided to take a peek around. The fountain had the Jalur Gemilang all around it and in the breeze, it was quite a spectacle. Real cute.

I also noticed the replica flag similar to the one from a couple of years ago. But this time it was hidden by the entrance.

This looks rather familiar ......Would have loved to hang around a bit longer but I had a few engagements today. And by engagements I meant food!

Happy Merdeka.

Memories of Merdeka

I'm not going to pretend that I'm a patriotic kind. But having lived abroad for a big chunk of my student life did put things into perspective somewhat. And for Merdeka Day, most of the students used to congregate at the High Commissioner's Residence in London for a quick get together and food, clad in their traditional costumes.

I guessed that made things felt rather different from the ordinary routine.

The first and only time that I joined in - making a trip to London from where I was based was rather tricky - was soon after I first arrived in 1990. I remembered that the High Commissioner's house was just outside Central London. We took a train there and then a short walk from the station. From afar you could see your fellow Malaysian in their Baju Melayu and Baju Kurung. Quite a sight in a foreign land.

We were ushered in, plenty of food at the garden this being late sunmer when the weather was still warm. A few of the students happened to be children of well known parents from back home and were known personally by the Commisioner or his staffs. They got to be introduced around, while us ordinary folk just mingled around looking perplexed.

We then decided from then on that maybe hanging around and meeting friends at Malaysia Hall was a better idea. Elitism can be stuffy .......

A Walk in the Park

I managed to escape early from my afternoon clinic last week to join Anita and the boys at KLCC where Idlan went to see Azida, my ENT Surgeon friend. Idlan had been troubled by rhinitis and has responded well to treatment. I arrived there late and only joined them after they had their afternoon tea.

But in time for a walk at the KLCC park, followed by dinner after.

As long as they ran around in circles, I was happyA nice breezy afternoon it wasNot sure what they were building hereBeing a Wednesday afternoon, the crowd there was a lot smaller than usual. There were people actually in the public pool, but the boys was mainly at the playground. They were already in their track bottoms from school, properly dressed for the run around.
There were renovations going around at the park, and there seemed to be a new building being erected between Suria KLCC and the mosque.

Yes Idlan, 1 more kilometresWait for me .....Time to get back to the civilisation Hopefully there were no plans to extend the development further as the park was a breath of fresh air in the middle of the city. People still jogged around there in the afternoon - which my boys tried to imitate.

We stayed there until almost 7 before heading inside for dinner. The boys were already cranky by then.

Another Leak

Unfortunately there was another leak at the apartment. This time it was at the bathroom by the main living area, and the water had seeped through underneath the parquet flooring. It would be another job to get those sorted out.

Informed the management about the problem, and the supervisor had seen in. Next would be the maintenance manager and the flooring company people coming to sort out the insurance part. Tedious.

The repair work might start in a week or so abd would probably last a fortnight. The plumbing would also need replacing the walls repainted. Sigh ..... The problem of living in an apartment .....